A/N: Not Mine. An in between sort of chapter. Thank you so much for your kind reviews.

Repressed

It had been two months but Mali was finally starting to understand the routine.

Her life was limited to three rooms and the halls that connected them: her cell, the Parlor like Class Room, and the Dinning Room.

Her cell had improved with 'good behavior', the lack of the open bad behavior she wanted to scream at them until their ears bled, with a mattress on one side and a chamber pot on the other.

Every morning she was woken up by a knock on her door and a set of robes were put into the hole in the wall. It was roughly five minutes before the guards would come to get her— if she were unprepared to go they would leave her there until the next day with no food. A nasty surprise when she figured that out. And when she missed a day of classes she got behind the rest Ms. Lin would intentionally ask her questions she couldn't know, slapped her, and then had her write lines of lies about her people when she got them wrong.

She's having us all focus on the small things to survive, thought Mail. In her anxiety she ran her fingers through her new itchy inch of hair. So we don't have the energy for the big important things like getting out.

Knowing that didn't change things as much as she thought.

Morning Lessons were all Fire Nation Culture. They learned what the women in Court wore, what was an appropriate pet, and stories better suited for small children who needed help going to sleep. Folk Tales about the spirits who guarded and guided the Fire Nation, and the Royal Family that could best them all. Dorje loved the stories but Mali couldn't keep track of the order or why. If there was a lesson plan it eluded her. It felt like Ms. Lin was making things up as she went along but every so often she would write in her book and they'd change course again.

The image of the Fire Lord on the ceiling had eyes that followed you wherever you went. It took her the first month to realize he was also smiling: the slightest hint of one at the corner of his lips. Like he knew a joke and wasn't telling.

Lasya spent a lot of time looking up at him. Ms. Lin would ask them to focus and Lasya would dart back to attention like a bird fluttering about; but she still looked at it all the same.

At least she'd stopped crying.

Breakfast and lunch were simple. They all said prayers to the Fire Lord in the Class Room and ate what they could. There was no consequence for avoiding the flesh of animals.

There was a brief time where after lunch they were allowed exercise, but Khalama had mistaken it for opportunity and tried to push her way out. In her mind's eye Mali was beginning to forget what her friend looked like without the black eye or the bruises. What she looked like without the wince of pain.

"Can't you just let them think they're winning?" Lasya had whispered to her, but Khalama turned her face away from the sound.

Instead of all ten guards there at all times there were five at all times with alterations and changes. With their helmets on she couldn't keep track of anything. They seemed more like the machines they used that day and not human beings. She could pick out her Main Guard in the group, the one who would speak with her, but only because he stepped so lightly. In another life she might have teased him for it.

Afternoon Lessons were all history, though warped as if seen through a pane of broken glass. Mali had liked history at home, going on adventures with the Nuns and exploring other cultures had been wonderful, but sitting in the room with the half truths and blatant lies strung up over her head was-

She had to remember each one. There was an or else attached if she forgot any details. When Ms. Lin talked about the Air Nomads she knew what was false and what was true but sometimes there were doubts about other details.

Had Avatar Roku really been friends with the Fire Lord? Mali knew very little about Avatars to begin with but it seemed… wrong somehow.

Was the Earth Kingdom really full of internal strife? She remembered bits of conflict when they'd visited last time but not to the degree Ms. Lin described. She made it sound like they were an earthquake away from sinking into the sea again.

What about the Northern Water Tribe? She'd only met a few members of the place before. The man had been fearsome and strict but Mali hadn't thought there was anything wrong with that. The Nuns had talked to them the way they talked to most everyone. Ms. Lin was enemy but described the weapons the men had carried in exact detail. She talked about how restricted the women there were and the limits of their bending. As Mali thought about it, thought about the Water Tribe Woman who'd smiled so kindly at them as they traveled, it was easy to imagine a longing there. The way she looked to her husband so often. Mali hadn't really thought of it that way.

Mali spent a lot of time trying to keep the information in her head without letting it wiggle into her skin. Nomads were accepting. It wasn't her place to judge when everyone was connected.

For Dinner they were all shuffled into the Dining Room and told to eat like proper Ladies. They sat guarded in lovely red chairs flecked with gold paint and drank from fancy cups. She learned to swallow fish- though it tasted of metal to her. Not eating your meat at Dinner had consequences.

"The Army was kind enough to supply us with another source of meat from the Air Temple," said Ms. Lin calmly. "If you don't like fish you're welcome to bison."

Mali had no way of knowing if it was true but she wasn't going to find out.

After Dinner there was light conversation usually guided by Ms. Lin. Mali would try to talk to the rest and they'd try to talk to her, but anything useful could only be said as whispers in between other things. Quickly when a guard seemed distracted or Ms. Lin had her eye on someone causing trouble. They were never alone.

Then it was a shower, simple, quick, guards trying not to embarrass her but still standing too close, and then back to her cell again.

If nothing else it was consistent. Sometimes it was so consistent she forgot to be frightened. But then Ms. Lin would say something about her people or the eyes of a soldier would look at her through the hole in the wall and the smoke would fill her lungs again.

She'd repeat her old mantra with the same certainty then. My name is Mali and I'm an Air Nomad. I can bend. I'll earn my arrows soon. I'm not alone.

She wondered sometimes if that was quite enough. Should she try to add the names of all her friends? When classes were extra awful she found her mind would go over the recipes for Fruit Pies. She'd been very good at making them. Everyone said so.

But those were just the bits and pieces of her. Interests and things she liked. A mantra was about defining who you were. She was Mali the Airbender and that was what they could not stomp out of her. Not ever.

And during classes she could still hold Jampa's hand as they sat side by side. On their own couch Lasya and Khalama would do the same. Dorje sat alone in the front and Mali wished very badly she could embrace her.

How would someone so young react to a lonely room all to herself? At night Mali wanted to pound at the walls like she did the first day as everything closed in on her. She couldn't imagine it for Dorje. Mali tried her best to be tall, to be the oldest, when she did get to see Dorje and maybe the rest would work itself out. An example.

She knew Lasya wasn't sleeping. The circles under her eyes gave that away.

After Dinner one night a chance appeared she hadn't expected. A game.

Ms. Lin smiled at them all and had them stand in a small circle. Her gold eyes shined with good cheer. "You've all been-" A quick look at Khalama especially. "mostly good for a little while now. How about something fun?"

There was a small silence as Ms. Lin waited for an answer. Dorje managed to shout hers out first with all the enthusiasm of her age. "Airball?"

Jampa closed her eyes and Mali remembered in a distant sort of way how talented she had been. No one could beat Jampa when she was on the move. But Ms. Lin simply laughed and nodded out a no. "Something a little simpler than that."

The game was called Messenger Hawk and though Khalama rolled her eyes the idea of it made Dorje giggle. One person whispered a phrase into the next ones ear and it went down the line until the last person spoke it out loud again. If they got the word right you won.

"If you don't," Ms. Lin laughed lightly. "Well it's still fun isn't it?"

Lasya hardly raised her voice when she spoke. "Um, is that all, ma'am?"

She had a point. It seemed too easy. But Ms. Lin simply repeated the rules to them against as if they were stupid, the book that had struck them so many times still stuck under her arm, and the game began.

Ms. Lin whispered in Dorje ear, who whispered in Jampa's ear, but the sound that was whispered into Mali's ear seemed unlikely to be from the likes of Ms. Lin. A bit of potential. "What about a boat?"

Mali tried to keep her face neutral, calm and meditative without a hint of surprise, and repeated the phrase to Khalama who laughed. When Khalama passed it to Lasya her eyes widened but she stayed calm. "Was it, um, 'sore throat'?"

Dorje bounced. "Lasya! It was pig goat!"

Ms. Lin seemed amused and Mali laughed just to be safe as her mind worked. A boat? With no gliders it might be a good idea. Once they knew what direction to go they could try and escape towards help.

They just needed to learn how to pilot a Fire Nation ship.

Without getting smashed out of the water.

Not to mention how to get to said boat in the first place. If there properly was one.

Mali looked up at the ceiling and tried not to sigh.

They played the next few rounds correctly, Mali had no way of knowing what the others were thinking but she knew Ms. Lin was smart and paying attention, but after three rounds she took the risk and switched them back again. "We'd need the keys first."

Lasya smiled cheerfully when the time came. "I don't know. But lets try? The, um, word again I mean."

It was nothing, the slightest bit of planning, but it was wonderful to know it was there. Mali felt her mood lift considerably and they traded little bits of ideas until they were all taken their separate ways again. She knew floating would land her a bruise or two but for once she felt like she truly could. Her bending was only a plan away.

Her cot had a proper frame now and dark red bed sheets. She allowed herself annoyance. "Doesn't the Fire Nation have any other colors?"

"We have dark red, crimson, fuchsia, and red!" offered her Main Guard. Mali kicked herself for imagining a moment of privacy and stuck out her tongue. That much at least he couldn't see through the door and the dark. And no one was there to call her childish.

When she got to bed she dreamt of red waves, but the storm subsided and she flew forward into bright blue skies.

Until Ms. Lin changed the rules of the world again.

Next Chapter: The Avatar